Luca Alexander sold a full line of high-end office furniture for SOFM. He called on all types of businesses to show his product line of finely crafted office goods. While he had a tremendous knowledge of his product line, he was having great difficulty relating to some of his prospects. He made four presentations last week that he thought he would close but somehow he left each without securing the sale. This is his account of each case.

Monday: Arrived at Friendly Jim's Glass Repair Company at 8:00 a.m. Friendly Jim himself greeted me at the door with a warm handshake and invited me to join him for breakfast. We sat down and Jim started discussing his wonderful weekend of golfing. Having already eaten breakfast and knowing I had a busy day ahead of me, I asked Jim if we could just get down to business and I started talking about our product. I stayed for an hour and haven't heard anything from him since.

Tuesday: Arrived at Gentleman James Electronics on Tuesday morning. I was about 10 minutes late due to heavy traffic and a little disheveled due to the poor weather. I asked James if he would like to discuss the product over a coffee in the staff lounge. He didn't seem too sociable and seemed to want to rush the whole meeting, thus I felt a little uncomfortable during my presentation. I did most of the talking and told him how much his staff would appreciate him for purchasing this new high-end office furniture. He didn't buy.

Wednesday: Arrived at Top Notch Solutions, a technical consulting firm that wanted to furnish its new office high-rise. I met with Sally Smith - who was impeccably dressed - in her office, which was kept as tidy as any office I had ever seen. It was a bit overwhelming and I had forgotten some of my presentation materials in my office so I tried to improvise. I couldn't remember exact figures so often had to ballpark some of my estimates to her. I had really hoped to get this contract but haven't heard anything yet.

Thursday: Met with Sam Chang of Acme Importing at a downtown restaurant for breakfast. While waiting for him, I noticed him pull up in his brand new Jaguar convertible and park it right in front of the restaurant. I couldn't help but notice the expensive jewelry he was wearing - in fact, it appeared like he was showing off. I spoke with him about the high-quality manufacturing process of our office furniture line and, for some reason, he seemed a little uninterested.

1. Can you see any possible causes for Luca's failure in these situations?

2. How might you have handled each situation differently?